What we captured of 2009.

What an Amazing, crazy, eye opening, busy, fun, romantic, wild, settling, sad and yet happily ecstatic year it was….

January: Alex’s 24th Birthday at the Andretti Speed racing with family and friends, Lauryn Williams birthday with our fun Athens friends, had fun walking the dogs around the lake in Clemson and took the pups outside in the middle of the night for their first sight at snow!

February: Renee’s bachelorette party in Savannah and beautiful wedding, had a date out in Greenville for Valentine’s day, Sent out wedding invitations made by ME, and of course…continued panning for the wedding!!

March: We had our "professional" engagement pictures taken in Athens (no offense Tara yours were taken in November though), Amara and Sean threw us a wedding shower in Atlanta, we spent Alex’s Spring break in Hilton Head (to save money!), planning the wedding ofcourse and getting my dress altered!!

April: Loved my bachelorette party in Charleston, my Statesboro girlfriends threw a wedding shower for me in,we found the perfect wedding band enhancer, collected RSVP’s for the wedding, finished last minute planning details AND I found out I was accepted into GRAD SCHOOL at Kennesaw!!

MAY: THE BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR

*Our Bridal Luncheon was beautiful at Hope's house, An amazing rehearsal dinner at Beaumont, Went to bed with Laura, Cara, tucker Milly, Cassidy, and Oskar! Finally..Our wedding exactly the way we wanted it, A Honeymoon in jamaica! arriving back at mama's at midnight to begin unwrapping all of our wedding presents (which alex fell asleep in the middle of), back to Clemson to start "using" our new wedding presents AND the dogs got off their leash (in public) to swim at park!!

May 9th, 2009

June: Our first white water rafting trip in Asheville, Braves game, Laura’s Birthday in Savannah, Spent the week in Hilton Head and a day with the girlies at the beach too, ALSO I ate my first piece of meat for the first time in 10 years or so!

Pause: Can we talk about this…. after 11 years of being a vegetarian and not drinking carbonation I have started doing a snid bit of both!!!

A lot of reasons played into this but one of the most important was the realization that i actually really SUCKED at being a vegetarian! I mean substituting cheese sticks for a steak at restaurants when i had limited options has been kicking me in the butt over the years!! SO as I started trying to make healthier decisions the past few months I realized how much easier it can be when you have more options. So far I have only moved to Turkey and Chicken (I’m so sorry turkeys and chickens out there, I did take one for the team for about 10 years though :))

We will see how the eating habits change in 2010! (oh and the carbonation thing was just a weakness… after 11 years of no coke products I caved... We were helping Andy and Rachel move out of a 3 story apartment and I was so hot and dying of thurst… Alex was sipping a Dr. Pepper which was always my favorite when i was little…. SO i gulped a huge sip and it was all over!! Oh well life is too short to say no to yummy things right!! :)

White Water Rafting trip in Ashville, NC

July: Spent July fourth grilling and taking the dogs out on the boat, our friends Jenn and Brice got married, I learned self defense at orientation for my intern, Lou and I had a long, scary ni ght with our neighbor, Alex got A great Job in Atlanta at Hughes Telematics, Mom helped me hunt out a new home in Roswell and Alex was able to start his job ASAP!

August: We packed up the pups and moved from Clemson, SC to Roswell, GA. I started grad school and my intern Lou and his new Job were able to treat mom and dad to dinner this time around on their visit to see us, Lou and I survived his episode of swine flu, I got a new “real” camera, rode MARTA for the first time (with billy’s help) to the Soap Box races and we celebrated our 10 year anniversary!

We knew we would miss living so close to the water, but our future was calling… or at least our investments for our future :)

September: our cousin little John got married in Boston, Had a Disastrous time with a new hair stylist turning my hair BLUE and then paid another 100$ the next day to get it fixed ( thank god!)UGH, Kennesaw flooded and school was canceled, I met Alex’s work friends, became obsessed with “Dexter”, We had a really good talk, went to a “gun show” AND I started watching football….and at times enjoying it??

October: Autumns Birthday at the Corn Maze, mom and dad brought Grama to visit our new place, we went to the Little Five Points parade with Laura when she came to visit, Bob came to see our place, Renee’s party bus birthday, took Ana on a hayride and trick or treating, Carved Pumpkins at Amaras for Halloween AND we got a new KING size bed set!!

November: Alex got new phone (droid), our 6th month anniversary, I learned how to cook chili and actually enjoyed it! Our wonderful Mountain trip to Asheville got canceled, Thanksgiving be default at our place and round 2 at Amara and Seans, my bed time became 5 am to make room to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE forthe entire month, we went to our first hockey Thrashers game with Autumn, Alex’s mom and Rocket came for their first visit and we hiked Kennesaw mountain.

December: Finished (and passed) my first semester of school, Christmas shopped EVERY DAY it seemed, Billy and Angela came for their second visit, had a dinner date with my classmates and alex got to meet some of them, sent out Xmas cards with wedding pictures and our blog website on them!! Celebrated my Birthday(4 times), Celebrated Tina and JJ’s graduation in Savannah, Spent Christmas with Family in Hilton Head and Boro and just before the year was over...…

*Just before the year was over we received the horrible news of Mrs.Dee Dee, she died December 30th, after a long fight with cancer. There are not enough nice things to say about her or her wonderful family, but I was especially reminded of her amazing kindness,courage and strength this weekend which shined through Jenna and Josh. Each time i found myself trying to comfort them at this sad time, I left feeling better because they had comforted me, just as Dee Dee was famous for doing.

Dee dee and Jenna, Easter 2009 giving kisses at my bridal shower.

“Stay close in your marriage, you have a great thing” Mr. Robbie to Alex, after the funeral.

Sweetest, strongest family we know!

We had quite the year of happiness and tears, and can only hope 2010 has just as many events of happiness waiting for us!!

Happy 2010 Minnicks’ followers!!